The Impact on Mathematics Teaching Environments Through Establishing, Developing, and Maintaining Professional Learning Communities
Research supports the precept that teachers become more effective when they cultivate a shift from isolation to collaboration in developing, delivering and measuring the effectiveness of their lessons. "Teachers must work in collaborative groups that provide time for articulating and clarifying the lesson, assessing the delivery of the lesson, and reflecting upon the impact of the lesson on student learning" (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Karhanek, 2004). The research shows professional learning communities in schools link to higher student achievement (Darling Hammond, 2000; Elmore, 2004; Fullan, 2007; Kanold, 2006; Lee, Smith, & Croninger, 1995; Newmann & Wehlage, 1995; Reyes, Schribner, & Paredes, 1999; Thiessen & Anderson, 1999).
Especially important to this effort is establishing SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, results-oriented, time-bound) goals, adopting congruent standards-based curriculum and common assessments for all students taking the same courses, and creating research-based lesson plans, all to ensure that students receive the same instruction, materials, and support. Moreover, learning is enhanced when instructors, working in their PLC groups commit quality time to analyzing student work and learning processes. Teachers in the TASEL-M project are called upon to become fully responsible for student learning, to gain insights from others about the practice of teaching, and to design a mathematics program that reaches ALL students. Teachers learn to have productive conversations about student work, share student thinking, consider student learning styles, and gain confidence in analyzing how students understand and learn mathematics. They become more skilled in leveraging student discourse to uphold a mathematically rich environment, and they become empowered to maximize their students' potential through the collaborative process of their PLCs.
A major hypothesis underlying the TASEL-M project assumed that developing strong PLCs would bring about change in the teaching environment, which would lead to changes in teaching practice, that would in turn result in enhanced student understanding of and performance in mathematics at all of the TASEL-M schools. Moreover, strong effective PLCs can permanently impact the school's mathematics teaching culture, sustaining the professional development effort well beyond the period of the grant, and potentially withstanding turnover of both teachers and administrators.
